strictlysupreme Chapter 223: Taking the important town of Hongcheng, the silence of the top leaders of the Southern
Chapter 223: Taking the important town of Hongcheng, the silence of the top leaders of the Southern
"What? Lost it in Xiangtang Town?"
After hearing the report from his subordinates, the commander of the Provisional 8th Army broke out in a cold sweat on his forehead.
What is this place, Xiangtang Town?
But it is the intersection of Nanxun Railway and Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway.
It can even be described as being very close to Hongcheng where they are.
But now the Fuxing Army has appeared in Xiangtang Town quietly.
The 97th Division stationed in Xiangtang Town did not respond at all, and contact was lost yesterday.
It is obvious that something happened to the 97th Division.
More than ten thousand people were gone, and suddenly a sense of fear arose in his heart.
Now he only has two divisions of troops left, and they are poorly equipped.
It is absolutely impossible to stop the attack of the Renaissance Army, and we must ask for help.
"Send a telegram to Lushan immediately. We need reinforcements. Send the temporary 48th Army back to support us!"
However, at this moment, the communications officer said with fear in his voice, "It can't be sent out."
"What do you mean?"
Upon hearing this, the commander glared at the communications officer as if he was choosing someone to devour.
"We tried multiple frequency bands and multiple radios, but none of them could send or receive telegrams."
"The Renaissance Army, it must have been the Renaissance Army who did it."
This was the first time he had encountered such a strange thing.
"Phone, Xun Yang is calling."
As the capital of Jiangnan Province, Hongcheng has a dedicated telephone line directly to Xunyang.
Since the radio is useless, you can still make a phone call.
But in less than five minutes, the communications staff ran back to the temporary 8th Army headquarters in a panic.
"Oh no, Commander!"
"What happened? Was the telephone exchange bombed?"
The commander's heart sank, and he spoke in an impatient tone.
The communications officer was somewhat stunned and looked at the commander and said, "So you already knew about this, Commander."
"What? The telephone exchange was really bombed?"
Now it was the commander's turn to be dumbfounded.
The communications officer said with a sad face, "That's right, I just went out to make a phone call, but the call wasn't going through at all.
Then someone reported that there had been an explosion at the telephone exchange, destroying all the equipment inside.”
The commander now felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar, with fear visible in his eyes.
Radios and landline phones all stopped working, which meant they had lost contact with the outside world.
It would take at least half a day to contact Lushan.
If you go back and forth, a whole day will pass.
"The Renaissance Army is about to launch an attack."
Obviously this was also a prelude to the Restoration Army's attack, and he had guessed right.
The Air Force arrived in Hongcheng from Jiangcheng at around 8 o'clock.
Dense groups of fighter-bombers and bomber aircraft flew over Hongcheng.
And air strikes were carried out on all military targets discovered in Hongcheng.
These include military camps, positions, railway stations, arsenals, radio stations, etc.
The roar of exploding bombs resounded all around Hongcheng.
In less than ten minutes, black smoke began to rise around Hongcheng.
The army commander took the command staff and temporarily hid in a building.
This place also became the temporary command center of the Provisional 8th Army.
However, telephones and radios were out of service, so they had to rely on cavalry for communication.
Bad news still drifted here like snowflakes.
"The 98nd Battalion of the 376th Regiment of the Provisional 2th Division was defeated in the bombing and has scattered and is unable to regroup."
"The 98th Regiment of the Provisional 375th Division's positions outside the city were bombed, suffering heavy losses. Requesting reinforcements."
"The Provisional 99th Division encountered repeated airstrikes from the Restoration Army, and many units were dispersed."
"......"
Reading these telegrams made the commander of the Provisional 8th Army dizzy and at a loss.
At this moment, he didn't even know how to deal with this situation.
And this is exactly the effect that the Renaissance Army wants.
Now the Fuxing Army's combat is no longer based on the same old three-pronged approach, but has begun to reform its systematic combat.
This war is also an experiment in systematic warfare.
Heading from Xiangtang Town to Hongcheng, more than ten formations of Double Blade, Hind, and Nighthawk helicopters surrounded Hongcheng from multiple directions.
These formations also have their own tasks.
At this moment, the 8th and 98th Divisions of the Provisional 99th Army were in chaos due to the bombing by the Air Force.
This also gave the 24th Airborne Division an excellent opportunity to launch a surprise attack.
What they had to do now was to use the powerful mobility of the Airborne Division to open up a passage from Xiangtang Town to Hongcheng, so that the 19th Airborne Division could launch a ground offensive against Hongcheng.
Among the many formations, one of them was an outer camp of the temporary 98th Division.
An entire regiment of troops was stationed here, and it was also the first obstacle.
At this moment, this infantry regiment had been suppressed in the barracks by the fierce air strikes of the Air Force and could not move at all.
An armed helicopter team consisting of 8 double-edged armed helicopters flew directly over the camp and began searching for attack targets.
The Hind and Nighthawk transport helicopters in the rear began to release the soldiers on board in an area less than 1 kilometer away from the barracks.
Although the distance was close enough, there was no counterattack.
AD-1 Skyraider attack aircraft, F-100 fighter-bombers and Twin Blade attack helicopters were constantly circling in the sky.
"Zizzizi..."
"Whoosh whoosh..."
Gatling machine gun bullets, 70mm rockets, and 40mm grenades continuously poured into the camp, directly forcing the Yugoslav troops hiding in the corners of the barracks to flee in panic.
So at this moment they had no chance to fight back at all.
It only takes five or six minutes to travel a distance of 1 kilometer.
When the airborne assault troops rushed into the barracks, they began to sweep away the Southern Allied forces scattered throughout the camp.
When they saw the soldiers of the Renaissance Army, their eyes were immediately filled with tears, as if they had seen their relatives. Without saying a word, they dropped their weapons and surrendered.
They also wanted to surrender just now, but the fighter pilots in the sky couldn't see them at all.
When they came out, they were directly attacked with aerial bombs and artillery shells, leaving them no chance to surrender.
That's why they were so excited after seeing the soldiers of the Renaissance Army.
After clearing the targets along the way into the city, other formations also launched attacks on targets along the way.
Among them, the fiercest battles were at Jinxian Gate and Zhangjiang Gate in Hongcheng.
Two regiments of the Provisional 99th Division were stationed behind Jinxian Gate in Hongcheng.
They are also the main defensive force defending the southern part of Hongcheng.
Therefore, this armed force must be defeated.
Zhangjiang Gate is the entrance to the city leading to the main street of Hongcheng.
Both areas were heavily guarded by the Provisional 8th Army.
Although both divisions of the Provisional 8th Army were in chaos, it did not mean that they had lost the ability to resist.
But their resistance was nothing but a futile struggle.
The defenders at Jinxian Gate organized a battalion of troops to rush up the city wall and opened fire on the incoming helicopters. They even deployed several anti-aircraft machine guns on top.
Two of the double-blade attack helicopters were unaware and were shot down on the spot.
They became the first and second helicopters destroyed in this battle.
The counterattack from the SAARC side also met with crazy retaliation from the armed helicopters.
There was even a double-edged attack helicopter that flew directly along the city wall, firing with a six-barrel 6mm Gatling machine gun, as if it was sweeping the floor.
A meat grinder was created directly along the way.
The dense bullets came like a rainstorm, and they had no way to hide on the city wall.
The anti-aircraft machine guns they deployed on the city walls were also destroyed.
This infantry battalion was left with only one in ten soldiers left after being repeatedly strafed by a group of armed helicopters.
The resistance on the city wall had disappeared, and the two infantry regiments defending the city collapsed directly under the bombardment.
Faced with such fierce firepower, they had lost all their few anti-aircraft machine guns. How could they deal with the large number of helicopters?
So they, whose fighting spirit was already weak, just ran away without caring about the flood behind them.
The battle on Zhang Jiangmen's side was also no surprise.
In less than an hour, the 98th and 99th Divisions were directly defeated by hundreds of fighter planes of the Fuxing Army Air Force and the 24th Air Assault Division.
If these 24 people were to fight the th Airborne Division directly in the fortifications, it would be more difficult to deal with them.
But these more than 20,000 people were all scattered around Hongcheng and within the city defenses, with only the barracks near Jinxianmen having more people.
So it’s not difficult to clean up.
As for the commander of the Provisional 8th Army, when the Fuxing Army attacked Jinxian Gate, he simply fled with his men towards De'an and Xunyang.
Hongcheng, the capital of Jiangnan Province, was directly handed over to the Fuxing Army.
When the airborne infantry fighting vehicles of the 19th Airborne Division rushed into Hongcheng from Zhangjiang Gate, it meant that this important town had fallen into the hands of the Fuxing Army.
At this time, it was only two days away from the start of the war on April 4st.
The Changhe Defense Line defended by the million-strong army of the Southern Alliance was ignored by the Renaissance Army, and the Xunyang Defense Line was directly shattered. Hundreds of thousands of troops were also caught in the two-sided attack of the Renaissance Army.
At this time, the Fuxing Army lifted the electromagnetic restrictions and no longer implemented electromagnetic suppression on the Southern Allied Forces on the Xunyang Defense Line.
The purpose of doing this is to let the Southern Alliance know that Hongcheng has fallen.
This will intensify their panic, affect the morale of the Southern Alliance's Xunyang front, and at the same time deal a psychological blow to the Southern Alliance's top leaders.
This is also a form of psychological warfare.
On April 4, Liu Jing, the commander-in-chief of the Xunyang front, who knew little about outside intelligence, finally learned about the situation outside.
On the Guangji County side of the Dabie Mountain defense line, the temporary 48th Army was put into combat and was able to block the fierce offensive of the th Motorized Infantry Division of the rd Army of the Fuxing Army.
However, tens of thousands of soldiers of the 7th Army were separated by the Fuxing Army in the western Dabie Mountains, and the temporary 48th Army suffered more than casualties yesterday.
The Mubushan defense line had been lost, and he could even hear the roar of artillery shells coming from afar on Lushan.
This is the sound of artillery coming from the front line of Lushan.
It is obvious that the Fuxing Army has already reached Lushan.
The most shocking news for Liu Jing was the fall of Hongcheng.
He had just transferred the temporary 48th Army from Hongcheng, and within a day, Hongcheng, an important town in the rear, was lost.
Only then did he realize that he had been deceived.
However, if he did not transfer the temporary 48th Army to Guangji County, the Dabie Mountain defense line would be in danger again.
So he can only choose between Hongcheng and Dabie Mountains.
Of course, there is no need to choose now. Hongcheng has been lost, and a huge loophole has appeared in the Xunyang defense line.
His entire Third Corps was in chaos and was attacked from both sides.
The situation has even reached a point where it is irreversible.
When the news from the Xunyang front reached Nanjing, the entire Southern Alliance leadership and advisors from the great powers were all speechless.